The video was aired on the main early evening news programme of public broadcaster NHK.

Public viewing was suspended last week when keepers noticed the pandas were in season, in the hope that they would have more luck reproducing away from the prying eyes of the thousands who visit the city zoo every day.

Shin Shin mated with Ri Ri in March last year and gave birth on July 5 - yielding the zoo's first giant panda cub in 24 years.

Announcements of the cub's subsequent death from pneumonia interrupted regular broadcasting, with the zoo's director making a tearful statement on the TV news.

Pandas, whose natural habitat lies in mountainous southwestern China, have a notoriously low reproductive rate and are under pressure from factors such as habitat loss. China has about 1,600 pandas living in the wild.